AMRITA SHER-GIL

Amrita Sher-Gil was a Hungarian/Indian painter was born on January 30, 1913 (aquarius, like mee). She has been called "one of the greatest avant-garde women artists of the early 20th century" and a "pioneer" in modern Indian art. She made her first major work, ‘Young Girls’ in 1932 for which she was elected as an Associate of the Grand Salon in Paris in 1933. Thus, she became the only Asian to have received this honor. She was greatly pained by the plight of poor Indians, especially women around her. She often painted agonizingly thin figures with grim expressions on their faces to depict the difficult life Indians lived at that time. Even though she had lived in other countries, she felt at home in India where she was able to pursue her artistic abilities. She felt that the purpose of her life was to portray the life of Indian people through her canvas. She is best known for her paintings of sad looking, thin and frail women which realistically depicted the plight of Indian women of her times. One of her paintings, ‘Village Scene’ sold for Rs. 6.9 crores at an auction in New Delhi in 2006.